Can OnlyFans save the music industry?

By Brittany Luse,

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, Alexis Williams, Neena Pathak

Published May 12, 2025 at 9:13 AM EDT

Why are musicians putting their content on OnlyFans?

Concert tickets are more expensive than ever, and according to Live Nation, 2023 was the biggest year ever for concert turnout and ticket sales. So why are indie artists turning to OnlyFans to pay the bills?

This is PART ONE of our new series, Money Troubles.

And for the next few weeks, we're looking into the ways everyday people are trying to make ends meet... and what it says about how our culture views labor, basic needs, and even our favorite pastimes.

In this episode, Brittany sits down with NPR culture reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento to get into the economic factors driving musicians to digital sex work and what that says about the music industry's dwindling middle class.

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Brittany Luse

Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento is a production assistant with Weekend Edition.

See stories by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Alexis Williams

Neena Pathak